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Henry Heavenly
Supreme Marshal Sir Henry Leopold Heavenly KCU KCMT KCSM KCGE OV OM (born 8 August 3228) is an Afro-Terran government official and State Security general officer who is the current Minister of State Security. He previously served as Vice Minister from 3281 to 3295, and directed the Republic Security Department, and its predecessor agency the Imperial Security Main Agency, from 3270 to 3281. He is widely viewed as the mentor of prominent State Security leaders Xander Vox and William McGrady. Prior to his upper-level ministerial service, he was an agent of the Imperial Strategic Intelligence Agency and a member of the National Volunteer Force of the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party. Prior to and during the Great War, he served as a field commissar and commanded a joint special operations unit. Early life and education Henry Leopold Heavenly was born on August 8th, 3228 to Kwame Emmanuel Heavenly and Jenna Heavenly in the Royal Hospital in Accra, Ghana Province. He is the third of nine children. His father was a customs officer in Accra, and his mother was the daughter of an Ashanti chieftain. In Ashanti local custom, land rights and titles inherit by the female line, and Henry's eldest brother inherited their maternal grandfather's chieftaincy and lands after his death in 3254. His father was an Anglican, while his mother practised the traditional Ashanti religion, and their children were brought up in both faiths. Henry was privately tutored until age 15, and then attended the prestigious Achimota School from 3243 to 3245. He participated in the school's symphony orchestra as an oboist and graduated in early 3246. He served two years active duty in the Imperial Navy Coastal Force, and was honourably discharged from the Navy Reserve in 3249. After his active service, he attended the University of Ghana for his undergraduate studies from 3248 to 3252. He attained his BA degree in Public Administration. He held odd jobs during university, and gained a job out of college as a junior customs enforcement officer. During his time at University, he became acquainted with National Humanism and joined the campus NHILP league. He joined the National Volunteer Force in 3250. He served in the NVF regiment ''Gold Coast ''during his time there, and acted as recruitment secretary to the regimental commander. On the strength of his commander's recommendation, Heavenly was transferred in May 3255 to the Party's central NVF Recruitment Bureau in London. While in London, he attended King's College at the University of London and sought a doctorate in law. He attained his Juris Doctor upon graduation in April 3258. Paramilitary career While serving in the NVF Recruitment Bureau, Heavenly engaged in political organising in voting wards in London for the local elections in 3260, and the national General Election in 3262. He rose quickly and became an assistant director in the Recruitment Bureau by 3264. The landslide victory of the National Humanists in the Parliamentary election saw the increased alignment of the Party paramilitary and security apparatus with the Imperial intelligence and police services. Heavenly enlisted in the Imperial Strategic Intelligence Agency and was commissioned an officer in 3264. After discussing the matter with the Director of Recruitment, in early 3265 he submitted a memorandum to the NVF headquarters recommending the recruitment and deployment of joint-service special operations units composed of blended Party-Military-Intelligence personnel to further integrate the institutions and develop an ideologically committed means of fighting alien, criminal, and colonial-insurrectionist terrorism. He was commissioned in 3265 to head the pilot program of this endeavor, and was sent across Terran space to recruit special forces operators and Imperial Intelligence agents to compose the initial test unit; he was promoted to Standardier, equivalent to an Army Colonel, and made the political handler and supervisor of the 9th Special Forces Group, nominally commanded by Commodore Edward Proctor. In early September 3265, he hand-picked the first combat team of the 9th SFG and deployed them in the Kojima Incident. The unit foiled the terrorist seizure of an orbital research satellite and neutralised a mutiny organised by Army officer Floyd Ophid. The blazing success saw the 9th SFG expanded to a brigade and its first combat team organised as a battalion-sized Group; the senior officer of the combat team, Céleste Beaumont, was chosen to command the 71st Studies and Observations Group as the premiere strike unit. The 71st SOG was deployed in the Great War in combat operations for sabotage, intelligence gathering, unconventional warfare, and direct action. At the same time, Heavenly was dispatched by the NVF Headquarters to front-line assignments in the Field Inspectorate. He periodically read reports on the activities of the 9th Joint Special Forces Brigade, but primarily operated between 3266 and 3268 as a political commissar for Army units in battle. He reviewed troops and ensured the political discipline of the officer corps. During his field reviews, he conducted recruitment for the rapidly-expanding joint special operations units under his effective control. After the Battle of Khoz, he recruited William McGrady and Zenzi Rothschild for Imperial Intelligence. In 3268, he took formal command of the 9th Joint Special Forces Brigade and set about recruiting further agents for the 71st SOG. He contracted a pair of mercenaries and assigned Storm Sergeant Rothschild and Storm Sergeant McGrady to it, while also supervising the detachment of Lieutenant Damien from the unit to found his own SOG within the 9th JSFB. He also departed the NVF Recruitment Bureau to command the brigade full-time, and orient it towards domestic counter-terror operations. In 3269, his successes brought him to the attention of Frederick Voss, Chief of Imperial Intelligence and Police, who appointed him chief of his personal staff. By this time, Heavenly had groomed William McGrady to succeed him in command of the 9th JSFB. Heavenly helped Voss plan out and organise the transition of the many separate Imperial and Party intelligence and security organisations into a single, streamlined department. On 3 November 3270, the Imperial State Security Department was created, and enabled to act as the security service for the entire human Confederation. Heavenly was appointed Deputy Secretary. State Security career Heavenly and Voss cooperated in the tumultuous early period of the human union to organise the ISSD and turn it into an effective, efficient apparatus for state security. Power was delegate to several directorates: The Field Operations Agency under Director William McGrady, the Imperial Security Main Agency under Heavenly himself, the Imperial Guard under Xander Vox, and the Domestic Security Agency under Enver Davis. In 3273, the Imperial Guard was merged with elements of the DSA and Vox became head of the Imperial Personal Protective Agency. The various Imperial Police agencies remained technically under the Ministry of Justice, but were commanded by Voss; most were organised under the administration of Bastian MacBeth. The reshuffling balanced the power relations between the main figures of the ISSD. In 3276, after the creation of the Ministry of State Security, Heavenly declined to be appointed Vice Minister, despite being the first choice of Minister Voss. Instead, Heavenly presided over the expansion and organisation of the Republic Security Department. The RSD was chartered to investigate political crimes, administer the penal system, conduct domestic surveillance and intelligence gathering, and had sole authority over alien crime and alien internment camps. The former head of the NVF Recruitment Bureau, Astrid Beauclerk, was appointed Vice Minister. In 3281, after the successes of Xander Vox and William McGrady in their departments' work and cooperation in ending the Keystone Incident and the Far Rim Uprising, another reshuffle occurred. Vice Minister Beauclerk was set to retire, and Heavenly was asked once again to take the position. He worked out an arrangement: Heavenly would become Vice Miniser and Vox would then be appointed director of the RSD; Vox would, the next year, relinquish command of the PPD to a handpicked successor. McGrady would see a considerable expansion in size and funding of his department, and all involved would receive high honours for their roles in preserving Galactic peace and stability.